Assessing the Association Between Social Gatherings and COVID-19 Risk Using Birthdays

Many policies designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 address formal gatherings, such as workplaces and dining locations. Informal social gatherings are a potentially important mode of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but studying their role in transmission is challenged by data and methodological limitations; birthdays offer an opportunity to empirically quantify the potential role of small social gatherings in COVID-19 spread.

To assess the association between social gatherings and SARS-CoV-2 transmission by studying whether COVID-19 rates increase after birthdays in a household.

This cross-sectional study used nationwide data from January 1 to November 8, 2020, from 2.9 million US households with private insurance to compare COVID-19 infections between households with and without a birthday in the preceding 2 weeks, stratified according to county-level COVID-19 prevalence in that week and adjusting for household size and both week- and county-specific differences. The study also compared how birthday-associated infection rates differed by type of birthday (eg, child vs adult birthday, or a milestone birthday such as a 50th birthday), county-level precipitation on the Saturday of each week (which could move gatherings indoors), political leanings in the county, and state shelter-in-place policies.

Household-level COVID-19 infection.

Among the 2.9 million households in the study, in the top decile of counties in COVID-19 prevalence, households with a birthday in the 2 weeks prior had 8.6 more diagnoses per 10 000 individuals (95% CI, 6.6-10.7 per 10 000 individuals) compared with households without a birthday in the 2 weeks prior, a relative increase of 31% above the county-level prevalence of 27.8 cases per 10 000 individuals, vs 0.9 more diagnoses per 10 000 individuals (95% CI, 0.6-1.3 per 10 000 individuals) in the fifth decile (P < .001 for interaction). Households in the tenth decile of COVID-19 prevalence had an increase in COVID-19 diagnoses of 15.8 per 10 000 persons (95% CI, 11.7-19.9 per 10 000 persons) after a child birthday, compared with an increase of 5.8 per 10 000 persons (95% CI, 3.7-7.9 per 10 000 persons) among households with an adult birthday (P < .001 in a test of interactions). No differences were found by milestone birthdays, county political leaning, precipitation, or shelter-in-place policies.

This cross-sectional study suggests that birthdays, which likely correspond with social gatherings and celebrations, were associated with increased rates of diagnosed COVID-19 infection within households in counties with high COVID-19 prevalence.